Lightning does not occur in Mesa, Desert, or Savanna biomes during Thunderstorms. I believe this to be a bug since it means that it is impossible to get charged creepers and thus some mob heads in worlds that are all Mesa, Desert, or Savanna.
I understand that rain is not intended for these biomes since they are "hot" biomes, but lightning should still occur in these places as it does in real life and in other Minecraft biomes.
Comments 7
My guess is lightning in Minecraft is tied to rainfall.
Also, it's "Savanna" not "Savannah" - search purposes.
Savanna and Savannah are both correct.
Lightning and rain are tied together but it is unclear if this is what Mojang intends.
"Savannah" may be an accepted spelling but As I said, in Minecraft pressing F3 shows it as "Savanna". You should change that in case someone is trying to do a search.
Savannah is Non-American English while Savanna is American. Another reason we (or is it us 😉) Americans confuse the rest of the world.
For Mesa & Desert, works as intended I think. Since you don't have rain either in those biomes. Don't know about Savannah.